1st January: “My life is such a mess :( ” Is your New Year resolution is to simplify and organize your life more efficiently without giving in much effort? It can be cleaning up your inbox that is getting filled with people telling that you won a billion dollars, it can be your gallery app crowded with too many photos, or just anything. These days, organizing isn’t as tedious as it was before. With your phone’s app store filled with really intelligent services, structuring your daily schedule is just a piece of cake. The best part of these platforms is that you don’t have to worry about teaching them, they will learn with your habits and preferences. So let’s take a look at some of the best apps you can download to simplify your life this year!
1. Organize your Emails with Inbox by Google
Google replaced their boring Mail some time back with Inbox, a beautiful mail organizing service. I’m a huge fan of Inbox, it is available for Android, iOS and the web – all of which are decorated with material designs. Inbox is basically a Mail app but with some smart add-ons. The app sort your emails in different bundles including promotions, purchases and a lot more. You can see these mails on main page but they won’t come in your way. Purchases and Trips have their own unique views, you will be seeing images of your purchases and your trips details without you opening the particular message. The best part is that you can create your own and group your mails. There are other three important aspects of this app – Pin, Snooze and Done. When you pin an email, it gets a special treatment and that conversation always stays on top, you can even filter your inbox with only pinned mails with just a simple switch. Imagine a scenario when you don’t have to read an important email, you can snooze that and the app will remind you to read that. Marking done basically means what it sounds like, you’re done with the mail and hence won’t show up in your default view.
Inbox by Google solves any inbox nightmares you ever had. Using it is a pleasure and with quick swipes, you can neatly clean up your inbox. I especially love the Pin and Trips feature, it’s just an awesome way to work when you don’t keep missing important mails. There’s a lot to explore here, so go ahead and give it a whirl if you haven’t yet!
2. Save Links with Pocket
Pocket is a neat little bookmarking app that saves articles/videos you don’t have time to read, it’s the most well known read-it-later service with more than 10 Million users. Pocket syncs between all your devices and you can read articles offline, of course it will download them first.
Sharing on pocket is really effortless, just share using the default sharing options or using extensions your computer’s browser. In a recent update, the app also shows some of the pages its users are reading so that you can download them for later. It integrates with over 1500 apps making it an absolute delight to use. The app is free; a premium version costs $44.99 a year and gives you a permanent library of all articles and pages you save, so they remain accessible even if the original page changes. Pocket is a clean, everyday utility you will love, so give it a shot and stop emailing the links to yourself.
3. Get on with Trello and start collaborating
Chances are you’re not an individual, you’re a part of an organization that works together and splits tasks. But checking on everyone and assigning tasks can get a bit complicated. Trello is there exactly to resolve that.
Trello describes itself as a “collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards” but getting how solid this platform is will take you some time. With Trello, you can create groups, checklists, assign an item in that list to different members, you can even add due dates on those and a lot more. The whole service revolves around the “board”, the home of your project where all cards are showcased. There are timelines for individual works showing when a person completed a task or comments made by members. Trello isn’t just limited to your workplace, it can be really beneficial for personal stuffs too. For instance arranging a party with someone or trip plannings where you can assign tasks like who will arrange the car, book the hotel etc. You get the idea. Of course if you need something simple, basic To-Do apps will do the job. There’s a lot more to Trello than the things we have mentioned above, it is available for your mobile and free to use too. So get on with Trello and start collaborating.
4. Capture documents with Office Lens
Microsoft’s Office Lens simplifies your document photos by cleverly recognizing what you’re trying to scan and what’s the size of that document. Office lens doesn’t always get what you’re scanning but you can tell the app manually that including whiteboards, business cards or plain old documents. Users can save documents scanned with Office Lens in a variety of formats, including as a Word document, as a JPEG or upload it somewhere on the cloud. The biggest advantage this app has is the ability to render your shot into an appropriate image that can be easily used for professional purposes. No matter at what angle or distance you take the shot, chances are office lens will get it right. Office Lens is an impressive, simple app and it doesn’t cost a cent. Try it now! Available on Windows, Android and iOS.
5. Unclutter your photos with Google Photos
Google released Android users from the pain of installing third party applications for basic photo management desires by releasing the new overhauled “Photos” service last year. The app breaks the boundaries of organizing photos and syncing them with the cloud, you can search those images with queries like “photos of my dog”, “my photos with my mom” or just do a Google search “Show me my photos” (You need to be logged in of course). The app looks beautiful as it comes straight from Google’s native labs and offers unique features to make your experience more joyful. Google Photos is available for Android, iOS and the web. It’s a great app and I’m glad Google finally solved the Photos crisis.
6. Say goodbye to spam messages with TrueMessenger
Truecaller launched the TrueMessenger app last year that aims to eliminate spam messages from your life. The app blocks messages from spammers, you can also mark a particular thread as spam if it isn’t already in the company’s database. The concept is similar to their flagship (caller database) app but this time it adds a protective layer to your messaging inbox. Everything else with this app works like any other SMS applications, the app also bundles a widget to quickly glance your messages. TrueMessenger for me right now works almost everytime, whenever it doesn’t, I just manually hit the block button. Right now this service is limited to Android as there’s no option to change the default SMS apps on iOS. So those were some of the best apps that exist to simplify your life, start using them and organize your life. Tell us your favorites down below in the comments section!
